Spitfire
by attackfishscales
Summary: Neal has more than one secret he's keeping from Peter, but as Peter draws closer to one, he draws closer to all of them.  Dragon!Neal AU.


**Disclaimer:** If I owned White Collar, there would be magic. Or Aliens, one or the other.

**Author's Note:** As this was written for elrhiarhodan 's sentence fest on livejournal, the fic below contains cruel and fiendish torment of the common comma and other niceties of grammar, and it's non linear. Each of the headers is a prompt from the fest.

* * *

><p><span>Spitfire<span>

**Neal - Hoard**

He couldn't keep his stash in his apartment, but when no one was around, Neal took out a gold coin or a silver necklace and curled around it, smoke drifting out of his nostrils.  
><strong><br>Peter - Hoard  
><strong>  
>The first time he walked in on Neal, fire streaming out of his mouth, a silver dime in his fist, he leapt of the bed, mouth suddenly full of sharp, sharp teeth, and by the time he had Peter pinned to the floor, the wings, tail, and scales had grown, but then Neal had staggered off him and stared, teeth, claws, wings, scales, and tail hidden again, eyes wide and human.<p>

**Peter and Neal - Hoard**

"So should I be looking for your cache in a cave somewhere?" Peter asked, as lightly as he could manage, but Neal favored him with a black look.

**Peter and Neal - Shine **

Peter watched him put on his hat and fasten the buttons on his jacket, putting that shiny, reflective veneer on, he one that said, "see, this is why I don't seem quite real, I'm not."

**Neal and Peter - Imp**

After Peter had seen Neal breathing smoke around the coin, sometimes Neal would let him catch him sitting on the windowsill in the sunlight, wings fanned out, soaking in as much sun as physically possible.  
><strong><br>Neal and Peter - Irk**

"Suddenly I'm a lot less impressed with your ability to break into things," Peter remarked wryly, scratching tiny, kitten sized winged lizard Neal behind his horns, and Neal stopped purring to project an air of fine-be-that-way.

**Neal - Pluck**

When he first stole the Haustenberg, he pretended it was part of his hoard before he gave it back to Julianna, and breathed smoke into the paint and canvas, and even years later, it probably still smelled of dragon fire.

**Sara - Hoard**

The first time she had to recover something from a dragon's hoard, she didn't believe they existed until she walked in and saw it (him?) tail and claws spilling over the sides of the queen sized bed covered in treasure.  
><strong><br>Mozzie - On Guard**

"Moz doesn't know," Peter's puzzled expression made Neal continue, "what was I supposed to tell him, yes, there really are non-humans among us, and by the way, I'm one of them?"  
><strong><br>Neal - Hinder**

"I'm telling June," Peter tried not to laugh, as a Satchmo sized Neal stalked and tackled his landlady's poor, beleaguered pug.

**Peter - Arm**

Neal's claws dug into the sleeves of Peter's suit jacket as Neal scurried up his arm, out of Bugsy's reach.

**Neal - Dragonfly**

As his hoard dwindled, Neal shrank down, down, down, from the size of a room, to the size of a house cat, to the size of a dragon_fly,_ until he thought he was going to disappear.  
><strong><br>Mozzie - Wait**

He listened to Moz telling him about how he had stolen the treasure from Adler and felt the treasure become partway his, and he could barely wait until Moz was out of the apartment so he could _grow._

**Neal - Ilk**

In prison, Neal used to wait for the brief moments when the guards weren't looking at him, gather up his sketches, and hold them close, a miniature hoard of the kind of things his kind adored, things he had made.

**Kate/Neal - Wonder**

She took him back to her place, and he could smell the sweet, aromatic smell of dragon smoke, and that night, they pretended to each other that they were human, but he let her wake up next to him in his true form.

**Kate/Neal - Tuck**

She was just starting out, and so was he, and they could fit together on one pillow, and he would tuck her in around her few bits of jewelry, her head would peak out of the blankets, and when the smoke billowed out of her nostrils, she looked like fire itself with her glossy red scales and gold horns.

**Kate - Vital Signs  
><strong>  
>He had never met an honest dragon before, a dragon like her who wasn't a thief, who the only thing she lied about was her human face, and it almost, almost was a violation to bring her over and help her fill her shrunken hoard with stolen wealth.<p>

**Neal - Egg**

"So did you actually hatch out of an egg, or something?" Peter asked, and Neal shrugged, but that night, he opened the drawer and pulled out the thin, fragile, shimmering egg shells and set them on the counter just to see them for a while.

**Elizabeth - Need to Know**

It was a relief when he had an excuse not to show up for dinner at the Burkes, because ever since Peter found out about him, he kept watching Elizabeth when he was over, like he just couldn't figure out how not to tell her that the man at their table wasn't human.

**Neal - Long Con**

Bugsy ambled up the stairs, his tiny paws thundering like dinosaur feet, and Neal stood up with a wicked grin, let his human form slip away, and stuck his nose in the doorway, his long, sinuous tail trailing out behind him until it bumped into the far wall.

**Neal - Veiled Threat**

"I just don't like the way you keep... _touching_ me, no, you don't get to accuse me and then pet my head and expect me to coo," he snapped, but the real reason he stopped letting Peter see his true form after Moz stole the treasure was because he never have told Peter about why he grew and shrank, but he didn't want to learn the hard way just what his friend could find out online.

**Sara/Neal - Withdrawal**

He woke up next to her sometimes, covered in scales, the bed creaking under him, and she would already be awake, stroking the softer scales right behind his horns, or at the base of his wings, and his hoard, his half of the Nazi treasure, would feel just a little smaller and farther away.

**Peter - By the Book**

"You know," Peter rumbled with just a tiny bit of real menace, "I looked it up, there's a federal prison that knows how to deal with dragons, you screw this up. I'd love to see you try to escape from that."

**Neal - Out of the Box**

"You know what that place is like?" Neal bared his teeth, "I looked it up too, they give you a little lump of _copper_ and put you in a terrarium, stick you on a shelf, and you are not that cruel."  
><strong><br>Neal - Glass Slipper**

Neal remembered offering to wear the anklet and trying not to smile too widely at the thought that the first time he took his true form, it would slip right off.

**Neal - Smother**

Neal glanced down at the anklet Peter was staring so pointedly at, shrunk small to fit around his scaly leg, and took his human form, "I know, I have no idea how it does that, I think it's using my magic, it isn't fair," and Peter decided right then that this was Neal's real problem, he didn't understand the meaning of the word fair.

**All - Magic**

It was something he had learned about as a hatchling, when he wanted to stretch his new, spindly wings, that they could never let humans see them, because if humans remembered dragons, they would remember dragon slaying too.  
><strong><br>Mozzie - Loose ends**

"What the hell!" Neal bolted awake and Sara threw the sheet over him, and Moz marched inside as Neal tumbled out of bed, taking human form as he fell, "What is that thing?" and Neal wanted to yell at him about learning to knock, but the wide-eyed revolted expression on his buddy's face stopped him cold.  
><strong><br>Mozzie - Good Until it's gone**

"Moz, get a grip," Sara pushed his head down between his knees and hushed his protests that Neal wasn't even human, his ravings that this was just insane, how could he trust him, "you're just pissed because this is he one conspiracy theory you didn't consider."  
><strong><br>Mozzie - Hell**

"And you, what are you?" he demanded, voice high and squeaking, "are you a dragon?" his voice climbed higher, "and the Suit, is he a unicorn?" but she just rubbed his shoulders while Neal slithered into the closet to hide.

**Neal - Blue eyes**

He wore his suit like armor, his scales, wings, tale, and teeth hidden away, and he smiled at Moz and put a hand over his shoulder, which his friend threw off as soon as it touched him, "nothing's changed," Neal murmured, "I'm still a lying bastard."

**Neal and Sara - Whimper**

Moz left, staggering away like he was drunk with shock, and Neal turned back to her, swallowing, and she shrugged, Neal's head hung.

**Peter and Neal - Stuck**

A few weeks before Adler kidnapped them both, when Neal was less than a foot long from tail to nose tip, he transformed in front of Peter to better ignore him and curled up in the other man's briefcase while Peter glared, but then Peter forgot he was there and packed up to go home, and Neal realized his mistake.

**Peter, Neal, and El - Snuck**

The scrabbling came from inside the briefcase and Peter peaked inside and blue slitted eyes scowled sulkily back.

**Peter, El, and Neal - Help**

Distracting his wife shouldn't be this easy, Peter thought guiltily as Neal crawled on his belly across the kitchen floor, but he kept talking until he saw a flash of blue and silver slipping out the door.

**El - Heal**

She didn't know, which was why a few months later, when Mozzie came in babbling about dragons and Neal, and something about Peter the unicorn, she called Neal, and asked if she should call 9-1-1.  
><strong><br>Neal, Elizabeth, Moz - Slight  
><strong>  
>Neal came right over, enduring the subway and the smell of stale urine rather than wait for Peter to pick him up, and when he came in, he guided Moz forcefully to the couch and sat him down, "Well, I can assure you that Peter is definitely not a unicorn," he joked, and Elizabeth just snorted.<br>**  
>Moz, Neal, Elizabeth - Need to Know<strong>

"You going to leave me hanging here?" Moz yelled, somewhere between panicked and indignant, "You going to let her think I'm crazy?" and Neal sat down next to him and smiled at her like a little kid and pressed Peter's number on the speed dial of his phone and handing it to her before taking his true form.  
><strong><br>Elizabeth, Neal, Moz, and Peter - Where There's a Will**

She started _yelling,_ and he was getting really tired of all the yelling, and under her voice, he could hear the scratchy mechanical sound of Peter over the cell phone speaker, "Hello, El- what-" Neal slipped into his human form and pried the cell phone out of her hand and tried to shush her.  
><strong><br>Peter, Neal - Countermeasures**

"Why is-" Peter began, but Neal cut him off, "Moz found out, he told Elizabeth, I kind of need you to pick me up here."

**Elizabeth - All In**

Elizabeth grabbed the phone away from him, "He's huge, he- he took up the whole living room, I don't know how he did it, but it has to be fake, right, I mean a dragon?"

**Neal - Fright**

Over on the couch, Neal put his head in his hands, "Peter is not a unicorn, Moz, where do you get these ideas?"  
><strong><br>Elizabeth, Moz, Neal - Blight**

"You knew?" Elizabeth shouted, and five seconds later, Moz yelped, "you told the Suit?" and Neal wondered if anybody in the entire city had figured out how to knock.

**Neal and Moz - Heart**

"It's not like I'm the first dragon you've met," Neal said, "I mean, there was Wilkes," but Mozzie wasn't reassured.  
><strong><br>Avery - Tight**

Aside from his own bonds and some cash, Neal had never been much one for keeping things in his stash printed on paper (painted on canvas, on the other hand...) but Avery absolutely knew how to defend a hoard, and Neal wondered if the slimy piece of crap could smell the scales under his skin the same way Neal could smell Avery's.  
><strong><br>Neal - Right**

Avery was the first dragon Neal ever dropped the dime on, Wilkes was the second, because Neal found he was that cruel, sometimes, for certain people.

**Neal, Peter - Light**

Peter walked through the door and kissed his wife, and eyed Neal, sitting calmly in the middle of the storm, hands in his lap, and when he caught the man's eyes, Neal dropped his head, then picked it up again with a smile.

**Peter and Moz - Health  
><strong>  
>"Mozzie, you can't tell anybody," Peter tried not to groan, "nobody wants Neal getting sent back to prison for breaking you out of a mental hospital."<br>**  
>Elizabeth - Glow<strong>

She poured herself a glass of water and leaned back against the counter, feeling her heartbeat slow down, and she figured it was all going to hit her again sometime that night, when she was trying to sleep, that yes, there were actual dragons, and she had seen magic in her own Brooklyn living room, and her husband had known about it for more than a year, "So," she said, trying to sound nonchalant, "are there other magical creatures out there, more magic?"  
><strong><br>Neal - Spark  
><strong>  
>There were stories they told amongst themselves of the kinds of creatures that had roamed the world, when they hadn't been alone in the world, when magic had been everywhere, and everyone had taken it for granted, but dragons had been the only ones in the end that were able to hide, blend in and shrink down, and he didn't know if the stories were true or if it had only ever been humans and dragons, so he tilted his head towards her, "Not anymore."<p>

**Peter - Taking Account**

The door clicked closed behind them, leaving Neal standing warily on the back porch as Peter advanced on him, mouth tight, eyes squinted together, "I found out something else while I was researching dragon-proof prisons," he said coldly, "about how a dragon's size is dependent on the size of his hoard, Neal, do you want to explain to me how you're suddenly big enough to fill up the whole living room?"

**Neal - Unfinished Business  
><strong>  
>When a con was blown, there was a hot feeling, then a cold one, and then a horrible, crawling sensation that left him stuttering "I... I... I..." for just a moment, just enough to blow it the rest of the way.<p>

**Peter - Fight**

"I know you stole the treasure," Peter growled, but then his tone softened, "Neal, you still have a chance to come clean on this, leave an anonymous tip, and I guarantee the Bureau will stop investigating," it was a shame, Neal thought that Peter couldn't really promise that, and it was a shame that the treasure wasn't his to surrender, and when he thought about it, he could feel himself shrinking.  
><strong><br>Neal - Free Fall**

"Haven't we been over this already?" Neal hissed, "What can I do to prove to you that I didn't steal that treasure?" he folded his arms, "I can't can I, because you already decided I had, you decided it the moment that warehouse exploded, and there is no way in the world I am ever going to convince you otherwise, thanks Peter, really."  
><strong><br>Peter - Blunder**

"Oh no, you do not get to put this back on me!" Peter returned, putting his hands on Neal's shoulder and holding on tight, "You do not get to make me the bad guy, I know how that works, and you can't do it this time, I won't let you."  
><strong><br>Neal - You**

"Peter, I'm not trying to con you," he started, but Peter brought his hand up, and Neal flinched like he thought he was about to be hit, "You said you'd never lied to me, do you really want to start now?"  
><strong><br>Neal - Whisper**

Neal pulled back, clenching his jaw and wrapping his arms around himself, "And what are you going to do if I don't give you what you want?" he whispered, "I told you, you're not that cruel."  
><strong><br>Peter - Castle**

"I'll get you one of those little plastic castles for your terrarium."  
><strong><br>Neal - Blight**

Neal flinched back, "I can't give you what you want."

**Neal - Whittle**

And he felt like the treasure just wasn't there anymore, like if he took his own true form, he would disappear, like he should have told Moz to get lost a long time ago, like the tightness at the corner of Peter's eyes were unshed tears, and he had put them there.  
><strong><br>Peter and Neal - Bright  
><strong>  
>They walked back inside together, and Neal shooed Mozzie out, with Peter's arm around his shoulders, Peter who wouldn't stop touching him, keeping his hand on him just to make sure he was still there.<p>

**Peter and Neal - Wish**

Nothing had changed really, Peter just had a little more confirmation, and Neal just had a little bit less of a leg to stand on, and when they climbed out of Peter's car and walked into work, they were already managing to act as if everything was normal.

**Peter and Neal - Sunder**

"He took my wife," Peter said through gritted teeth, and Neal felt small, and helpless, and incapable, and when the other agents made Peter sit down, and there were no eyes on them, except Diana's who had threatened to handcuff her own boss if he dared rise from that couch, Neal slid into his own true shape and curled into Peter's lap, out of sight in the shadows of Peter's pant legs.  
><strong><br>Peter - Stark**

Peter knew he should be angry, he should be furious, at Neal, or maybe be grateful that the man was trying to comfort him, he wasn't sure anymore, but he looked down at Neal, the size of a mouse, tail wrapped around his wrist, and mostly he just felt afraid.


End file.
